A Fantastic Monday Morning Sky Show

On
Monday morning, Nov. 5th, anyone willing to step outside before
dawn will see a fantastic display of stars and planets—and
maybe a couple of spaceships, too.

The
planets: Venus, Saturn and Mars.

Venus
is the extravagantly luminous "star" hanging low
in the east. You can’t miss it—especially because the crescent
Moon is hanging nearby. The closely-spaced pair is as lovely
as anything you will ever see in the heavens.

If
you can, tear your eyes away from Venus and the Moon. Just
above them hangs Saturn, a delicate yellow beauty that cries
out for the attention of your telescope; even small 'scopes
reveal Saturn's breathtaking rings. And above Saturn, almost
directly overhead, shines Mars. It is bright, distinctly orange,
and for reasons science cannot fully explain, a little hypnotic.

You
won't be the only one looking at the planets. Orion the Hunter
is there, too, outlined in the sky by an hour-glass of first
and second magnitude stars. Joining Orion is Castor, Pollux,
Regulus, Aldebaran and brightest of all, Sirius, the blue-white
Dog Star: sky
map This stellar sprawl frames the planets in a scene guaranteed
to spellbind—that is, until something comes along to break the
spell.

That
would be the spaceships: Space shuttle Discovery
and the International Space Station (ISS).

The
two orbiters are due to fly over many US towns and cities
on Monday morning. If things go according to plan, Discovery
will undock from the ISS at 5:32 am EST (updates),
which means the two ships will appear as distinct points of
bright light, side-by-side, gliding together past Mars, Sirius,
Orion, Venus and the Moon. Check NASA's Skywatch
web site for spotting times.

What
comes next may strain the credulity of some readers, but it
is true. In addition to the stars, planets, spaceships and
lunar close encounters, there is also an exploding
comet:

Comet
17P/Holmes burst into view last week when something happened
to the comet's core—a collapse, a fracture, a comet-quake?
No one knows!—causing the comet to surge in brightness almost
a million-fold. It is now visible to the unaided eye as an
expanding fuzzball in the constellation Perseus similar in
brightness to the stars of the Big Dipper. To find the comet,
first face Mars and then spin around 180-degrees: sky
map. It's a must-see target for backyard telescopes.